DENVER-The Colorado Public Utilities Commission scrapped a plan that would have provided a new area code for wireless phones and pagers only.
Citing legal and financial implications, the commission has instead opted to retain an original plan calling for an all-services overlay for area-code relief.
The CPUC was looking into a wireless-overlay option despite a 1995 ruling from the Federal Communications Commission that prohibits states from implementing such plans because they discriminate against wireless carriers. The CPUC would have had to petition the FCC to waiver the rule, which officially went into place in 1996.
“Even though the commission would have sought a waiver and several states are challenging the rule, there is a hurdle of timing. Even if the FCC were to change its mind, the commission said it was unlikely to occur before the exhaust of the 303 area code,” said Terry Bote, CPUC spokesman.
The CPUC also sided with Colorado’s wireless carriers, which argued in recent CPUC hearings that the cost of reprogramming paging units and mobile phones posed an extreme financial burden.
Connecticut and Pennsylvania already have adopted wireless-only area-code overlays. Connecticut has issued an order to seek a waiver from the FCC.
